Author
Jill McGivering
Jill McGivering has worked in journalism for 25 years. She is currently a senior foreign news correspondent with the BBC having previously held the position of South Asia Correspondent (based in Dehli). Now based in London, she travels extensively for the BBC including assignments to Afghanistan and China. She has already written non-fiction, short fiction and plays. The Last Kestrel is her first novel.
Anne Berry
Anne Berry was born in London in 1956, then spent much of her infancy in Aden, before moving on to Hong Kong at the age of six, where she was educated. She worked for a short period as a journalist for the South China Morning Post, before returning to Britain. After completing a three-year acting course, she embarked on a career in theatre, playing everything from pantomime to Shakespeare. She now lives in Surrey with her husband and four children. ‘The Hungry Ghosts’ is her first novel.
Rebecca Pert
Rebecca Pert was born in 1990, the youngest of four siblings. She grew up in a small town in Devon before attending Cardiff University, where she received an MA in Creative Writing. She now lives in Gloucestershire with her husband, son and dog. Still Water is her first novel.
Sophie Jai
WILD FIRES is Sophie Jai’s debut novel. She was selected as a 2020 Writer-in-Residence and Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford for WILD FIRES, and was longlisted for the 2019 Bridport Prize Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award for a First Novel. Jai was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago. She splits her time between Toronto and London.
Yomi Adegoke
Yomi Adegoke is a multi award-winning journalist and author. She is a columnist at the Guardian and British Vogue and the former host of the Women’s Fiction Prize podcast. In 2018, she co-wrote the Sunday Times bestselling book Slay In Your Lane and was named one of the most influential people in London by the Evening Standard. She has been awarded the Groucho Maverick and Marie Claire Future Shaper awards and named on the Forbes 30 under 30 list. The List is her debut novel.
Inua Ellams
Born in Nigeria in 1984, Inua Ellams is an internationally touring poet, playwright, performer, graphic artist & designer. He is an ambassador for the Ministry of Stories and has published four books of poetry: Candy Coated Unicorns and Converse All Stars, Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales, The Wire-Headed Heathen and #Afterhours. His play, Barber Shop Chronicles, sold out at England’s National Theatre. He is currently touring An Evening With An Immigrant.
J K Chukwu
J K CHUKWU is a writer and visual artist from the Midwest. She holds an MFA in Literary Arts from Brown University and was a 2019 Lambda Fellow. Her work has appeared in Black Warrior Review, DIAGRAM, and TAYO.
Sefi Atta
Sefi Atta is the author of two previous novels, Swallow and Everything Good Will Come, and a collection of short stories, News from Home. She has been awarded the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa and the NOMA Award for Publishing in Africa. Her novels have been published around the world and translated into numerous languages, and her radio and stage plays have been performed internationally. She was born in Lagos and now lives in the United States.
Anna James
Anna James is a writer and journalist living in London. Anna was Book News Editor at The Bookseller and Literary Editor of Elle UK. Anna has written for The Pool, The LA Times, The Financial Times and The Independent, as well as making YouTube videos as A Case For Books. She hosts literary events and panels and is the co-founder and host of the London YA Salon. She was shortlisted for the Kim Scott Walwyn Award for Women in Publishing, 2015, and the London Book Fair Trailblazers Award, 2016.